Oven-baked octopus & potatoes

Croatia has a beautiful and long coastline, from Istra to Dubrovnik, and a countless number of islands. I’ve mentioned the breathtaking nature probably countless times but there is one more segnificant thing – food! Every region stretching from north to south has it’s own book of recipes, ways of preparing their traditional dishes, but there’s one thing in common.. no matter the recipe, I’m ceratian you’ll find the food delicious.

I love seafood, not just because I have family roots on a number of islands in the Adriatic, but because it’s delicious and healthy. No matter if it’s fish on the menu or clams, there is always that certain recipe that shows you how to prepare them just right.

So this recipe for Oven-baked octopus and potatoes for me is just the right way of preparing octopus. It asks for a few simple ingredients and the result is mouthwatering. Just thinking about it I can smell the scent of all of those herbs and ingredients cooking in red wine – delicious. I’ll let the recipe speak for itself!

Enjoy & happy cooking!

Preparation: 25 min

Cook time: 1 h 15 min

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 kg octopus

800 g potatoes, sliced

2 red onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

Olive oil

2 tsp parsley

1 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil, freshly chopped

2 tsp rosemary

1,5 dl red wine

Salt & pepper to taste

How to

Best way to prevent octopus from turning out tough after baking is to freeze it after cleaning it. You take out the octopus from the freezer and after melting it, slice it.

Preheat oven to 180° C. Sprinkle some olive oil over a large baking tray, add sliced octopus, potatoes, onions and garlic. Season with parsley, oregano, bacil, rosemary and roast in the oven. Cover the baking tray or a bowl you’re baking the octopus in with aluminum foil while baking to preserve the flavours.

Bake the octopus for about 1 h in the oven, when it’s almost done pour red wine over it and remove aluminum foil. Roast for another 15 min until the potatoes are crispy and all the flavours combined. Enjoy!